1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the arts of data management, searching, and summarization tools for networked computers and databases, and especially to user interface technologies for web browsers.
2. Background of the Invention
High-demand users such as investors, purchasing agents, sales people, and technical support staff, perform constant research online, via the Internet and other proprietary data networks and datafeeds. Current methods of delivering the multiplicity of information needed by these users usually involves a less-than-intuitive and confusing array of windows, pop-up boxes, and drop-down lists.
For example, a professional trader's daily activities in a “trading room” includes accessing, monitoring and analyzing many sources of information through a variety of means such as terminals, computers, and telephone lines.
One such trading room is the educational and model trading room operated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Sloan Trading Room. In this simulated trading room, student “traders” may observe “tick-by-tick” price-volume date from such data sources as Reuters, Bridge, and Bloomberg for over 300,000 financial instruments.
A trader may also watch “data walls”, such as those operated by Trans-Lux, and the trader may use an IPC Tradenet telephone network as needed. Each trader also typically has access to a personal computer (“PC”). All of these devices are arranged on a trader desk or console where they can physically be monitored and operated by a trader throughout his or her work day.
So, through all of these means, a typical trader may try to monitor several datafeeds, such as Reuters and Bloomberg, as well as access databases of historical information regarding various financial instruments and companies, such as the Center for Research in Securities Prices (CRSP) at the University of Chicago, and Standard and Poor's Compustat. Further, the trader may have access to analysts reports, such as I/B/E/S, from his or her PC. The PC itself is usually equipped with analytical and charting software, such as Leading Market Technologies' EXPO data visualization and analysis package, for processing and analyzing “raw” data received from the datafeed services. Additionally, the trader may use the PC and a browser to “check” or visit various web sites for news and information throughout the day and while making investment decisions.
This environment, though, can be overwhelming to the trader due to the amount of simultaneously displayed information, some of which is displayed in text format such as analysts' remarks, news stories, and ticker updates, and some of which is displayed graphically, such as historical charts, index trends, etc. All of these forms of information usually use color coding for highlighting of information or indicating other conditions related to the information.
The web browser has taken the forefront as the main tool in recent years, as many of these sources of information have transitioned from originating from proprietary sources and technologies to being available via the Internet. While this has consolidated much of the information for access through a single instrument, the PC, it has increased the amount of manual operations necessary to “keep abreast” of the various sources of information, such as clicking and typing operations to jump from one web site to another.
Some “off the shelf” software packages have been developed to integrate and summarize some of this information into single screens of information. These, too, follow the user interface paradigm of a browser, typically, and usually do not allow for a great deal of customization as to the sources of information, priority of the updates, display arrangement, etc. Many such software packages have been adapted for non-professional use, such as use by “day traders”.
The user interface paradigm typically is an “inverted-L” paradigm, wherein a user first selects a task or operation to be performed, such as selecting an analysis program to be run, and then must select an object on which to run the task, such as a block of data from a datafeed or database. This action may be preceded by a number of “navigation” operations to locate the task or program, as well as it may include a number of navigation operations to find the object on which the task is to be performed.
For example, if a trader wants to generate and review a two-year price-volume trend analysis and generate a related graph or chart, he may first have to “click” or navigate a menu structure to find the appropriate program or icon for the analysis task. After invoking the task, he must then select the block of data upon which the analysis is to be run, such as first selecting “DATA” then “IMPORT”, and then navigating to find the appropriate database, setting input filter options, and then completing the data input process. Finally, the trader executes the analysis operation, specifying any options necessary, and gets the results and chart he needs to see.
This process is cumbersome most times, and can require a significant amount of time to conclude, which is critical during “live” trading sessions. Further, this process requires intimate knowledge of the computer system, where it's programs are located and how they are organized, and where or how to access each data source.
This “paradigm” of research, data access, and analysis is common to many other professions including purchasing agents, sales professionals, and technical support staff, all of whom find themselves overwhelmed by the amount of information through the Internet, and frustrated by the user interface of browsing, windowing, and program control.
The related patent application discloses a system and method which reduces the information overload suffered by many professionals in research-intensive fields, and which allows the user to order and arrange the information in a manner which is conducive to his or her specific tasks and activities. Additionally, the invention of the related patent application provides an integrated user interface which enables a user to switch between tasks easily and quickly using an Object-Action Navigation user interface model. This system also allows a user to receive and view retrieved information according to his or her specifically indicated interests, such as keywords, and to receive and review related information in a secondary priority which may also be of interest.
The related invention employs a plurality of independent modules, each module being responsible for retrieving certain information from certain sources and/or performing certain processing actions on this information.
However, this advanced information-aggregating web site technology has an essential benefit and a problem that goes along with the benefit. The benefit is that information from varied sources can, with the new technology, be aggregated and presented to the user in a cohesive fashion using these semi-independent information modules.
Information in these modules can all respond, in an apparently independent but parallel fashion, to system-wide search/filtering/selecting context-setting actions by the user. However, the semi-independent nature of these modules, representing as they do information from varied sources, creates a difficulty: By what simple and constrained mechanism can information about the user's browsing and selecting within each module be reflected back to the system-wide context tools displayed by the browser?
Forcing the information modules to be completely integrated with all the functions of the aggregating system would negate the flexibility of the aggregated, semi-independent nature of the information modules (e.g. reducing the independence of the modules).
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a system and method which, cooperative with the invention of the related patent application, provides quick and simple access to information objects encountered while browsing information displayed on a website. This new system and method should also provide a user with a historical view of previously accessed objects.